This white paper showcases the migration approaches and challenges involved in moving from IBM Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino to either of two cloud-based options: Microsoft® Office 365 (the successor of Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite, or BPOS), and Google Apps for Business (GAFB, formerly known as Google Apps Premier Edition). The paper clarifies the differences between the two options, and describe their benefits in detail to help you make an informed decision about them.​

1. Migrating IBM Lotus Notes and Domino
to the Cloud: Selecting Microsoft versus
Google
Published: January 2011
For the latest information, visit www.whymicrosoft.com

2. Table of Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................................................................ 3
Microsoft Office 365 ................................................................................................................................................................ 3
Google Apps for Business (GAFB) ............................................................................................................................................ 3
E-mail and Calendaring Migration and Coexistence .............................................................................................................................. 4
Migration and Coexistence Tools............................................................................................................................................. 4
The End User’s Migration Experience ........................................................................................................................................................... 6
End User Adoption ................................................................................................................................................................... 6
Microsoft Outlook Integration ................................................................................................................................................. 7
Unified Messaging, Instant Messaging, and User Presence .................................................................................................... 7
Offline Capabilities ................................................................................................................................................................... 8
Migrating Applications and Data ................................................................................................................................................................... 8
Application Platform Comparison ............................................................................................................................................ 9
Application Data Migration Tools .......................................................................................................................................... 10
Full Lotus Notes/Domino Retirement .................................................................................................................................... 10
Links and Resources .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 12
Microsoft Links....................................................................................................................................................................... 12
Customer Case Studies .......................................................................................................................................................... 12
Microsoft Migration Partners ................................................................................................................................................ 13

3. Introduction
More and more users of legacy IBM Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino systems today are considering migrating to
other systems. The advent of cloud computing makes this migration much easier to consider. For Lotus
Notes/Domino users, cloud-based, hosted messaging and application services can provide the latest technologies
along with an attractive alternative to costly upgrades. But if your organization is considering migrating to the
cloud, you should carefully examine which hosted services can most easily inherit existing technology investments,
and identify tradeoffs that might adversely impact IT teams and end users.
This white paper showcases the migration approaches and challenges involved in moving from IBM Lotus Notes
and Lotus Domino to either of two cloud-based options: Microsoft® Office 365 (the successor of Microsoft
Business Productivity Online Suite, or BPOS), and Google Apps for Business (GAFB, formerly known as Google
Apps Premier Edition). We will clarify the differences between the two options, and describe their benefits in detail
to help you make an informed decision about them.
Microsoft Office 365
The successor to Microsoft BPOS, Microsoft Office 365 is available in beta form today and will be released as a
product suite in 2011. Office 365 provides the following hosted software services:
 Microsoft Office: The world’s leading productivity tool on the desktop (Office Professional Plus) and on the
Web (Office Web Apps) now seamlessly connected and delivered with cloud services — for a comprehensive
productivity experience across the PC, phone, and browser
 Microsoft Exchange Online: Cloud-based e-mail, calendar and contacts with the most current anti-virus and
anti-spam solutions. Includes the ability to get e-mail on virtually any mobile phone and options for voice
mail, unified messaging and archiving
 Microsoft Office SharePoint® Online: Cloud-based service for creating sites to connect colleagues, partners
and customers. Includes enterprise social networking and customization options
 Microsoft Lync™ Online: Cloud-based instant messaging (IM), presence, and online meeting experiences
with screen sharing, and voice conferencing and videoconferencing
Google Apps for Business (GAFB)
GAFB provides the following hosted software services:
 Gmail: A Web-based e-mail service that lets a business run their e-mail by using Google’s systems
 Google Calendar: A Web-based service for managing personal, corporate, and team calendars
 Google Talk: Lets users communicate with each other in real time through instant messaging
 Google Docs: Provides Web-based tools for creating and collaborating on documents, spreadsheets, and
presentations
 Google Sites: Lets users create Web sites to publish internally within a company or externally
 Google Video: Lets users upload videos to a shared repository and view them through a Web-based player
 Google Message Security: Lets administrators create rules for handling messages containing specific content
and file attachments
Make an informed decision! Visit www.whymicrosoft.com 3

4. E-mail and Calendaring Migration and Coexistence
IBM Lotus Notes/Domino uses a proprietary message storage and calendaring format, so migrating its data to the
cloud with complete fidelity is difficult. During migration, Lotus Notes/Domino may have to coexist with the
cloud-based service for months, depending on the size of the organization. Maintaining coexistence between
Lotus Notes/Domino and the cloud-based service is paramount during this transition period so that everyone can
still send messages, reserve conference rooms, schedule meetings, and perform other tasks.
Migration and Coexistence Tools
Microsoft provides state-of-the-art e-mail and calendaring migration and coexistence tools to help you move IBM
Lotus Notes e-mail and calendar data quickly and efficiently to Microsoft Office 365. Microsoft and its partners
have an excellent track record in preparing organizations for the transition from IBM Lotus Notes and other
messaging systems to Exchange Online. Microsoft has developed a comprehensive, well-tested Microsoft
Migration Planning Process to minimize the impact on Lotus Notes/Domino users during migration. This
migration process is successful without manual intervention more than 98 percent of the time, with safeguards
that enable Microsoft to identify and correct problems before they become visible to end users. The CIO of Coca
Cola said:
"In a five-month timeframe, we migrated roughly 30,000 people to a hosted [Microsoft] solution, without impacting
their business or interrupting their day-to-day operations.”
–Esat Sezar, CIO, Coca-Cola Enterprises
Many Microsoft partners offer services and tools for enterprises that want to move to hosted services. For
example, BinaryTree offers a speedy migration service called ―Weekend Express‖ that can move up to 10,000 Lotus
Notes user accounts along with all their message data to Office 365 over a single weekend. BinaryTree also
provides coexistence solutions that enable free/busy lookups for Lotus Notes calendars, integration processing for
workflow applications that send custom e-mails, and middleware intelligence to transform recurring calendar
invitations and other complex messaging items so that they work correctly between IBM Lotus Notes and
Exchange.
Google, by contrast, provides only lightweight tools for converting Lotus Notes/Lotus Domino e-mail messages
and some contact and calendar data to Google Apps. Google’s tools do not support archived mail, contacts,
meeting rooms, tasks, and advanced calendar items in Lotus Notes. IT personnel or end users must install the
Google Apps Sync application, or use forms in admin-generated e-mail messages, and then move much of their
data manually.
Google also offers only simple coexistence capabilities during migration. For example, users cannot handle all
meeting requests or business-process workflow messages during migration added additional cost to any
transition. Lotus Notes applications that send messages including workflow buttons, embedded forms, or doclinks
will be unusable when delivered to Gmail.
For a side-by-side comparison of how well e-mail data migrates from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Exchange versus
Google Apps for Business, see Table 1.
Make an informed decision! Visit www.whymicrosoft.com 4

5. Table 1: E-mail Data Migration from Lotus Notes to Exchange Online versus Google Apps for Business
Migrated content Exchange Google
Gmail problems
or feature Online Apps
E-mail (messages E-mail messages are automatically combined into threads
Yes Yes
with read state) based on subject line.
Executable attachments (including self-extracting zip files)
Attachments and
Yes Partial are not copied. Rich formatting layout is altered in the
rich formatting
conversion to HTML.
Flags, reminders,
Yes No Flags become stars. Follow-up reminders are lost.
and importance
Inbox rules Yes No Not migrated to Gmail
Signatures Yes No Not migrated to Gmail
Lotus Notes users must decrypt all e-mail before the
Encrypted mail No No
migration to either BPOS or GAFB.
Calendar (all
Yes Yes
calendars)
Free and busy status Yes Yes
Attendees and Google Calendar does not reliably handle attendee status.
Yes Partial
responses Attendee responses are dropped inconsistently.
Event reminders Yes Yes
Attachments and Attachments are stripped from calendar events, and rich
Yes No
formatting formatting in calendar events does not import.
Users must synchronize their personal address books before
Personal Contacts Yes Yes
migration.
Personal groups
Yes Yes
and D/Ls
Attachments, notes, Attachments greater than 20 MB are stripped. Links are no
Yes No
and links longer clickable. Notes larger than 16k are truncated.
Public NAB or No equivalent shared directory feature. Users must enable
Global Contacts Yes Partial domain share contacts, resulting in duplication of contacts
(GAL) that require an IT administrator to resolve conflicts.
Tasks are not migrated to Gmail, though Gmail supports its
Tasks Yes No
own Tasks now.
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6. The End User’s Migration Experience
Migration to any new environment will almost always impact end users, but you can minimize that impact by
choosing the right hosted service provider. During migration to Office 365, Microsoft’s tools help you move end-
user e-mail and calendaring content with full fidelity and provide a viable coexistence experience for messaging
and calendaring. Coexistence with Office 365 during a transition period doesn’t require you to redevelop or
remediate any IBM Lotus Notes/Lotus Domino applications. Even after their e-mail is moved to Office 365, end
users can continue to use Lotus Notes to reserve conference rooms for meetings and interact with workflow
messages generated by business-process applications.
The experience of ends users during and after migration from Lotus Notes/Domino to Google Apps can be
unsatisfactory because there is no integrated coexistence for recurring calendar items, complex mail messages, or
business process workflow messages. Users must continue to check a secondary mailbox on Lotus Notes for any
business-process messages generated by applications. What’s more, unread messages are marked as read after
the migration to Gmail, and users cannot act upon Lotus Notes-specific content such as forms, buttons, and
document links in Gmail messages. What’s more, the default setting for all messages in Gmail is ―conversation
view‖—threading messages in an unorthodox manner, which can frustrate many users.
End User Adoption
Microsoft Office 365 provides users with the same familiar, easy-to-use interface in Microsoft Office Excel®, Word,
PowerPoint®, and OneNote® that users already have on their desktops. Users are usually already familiar with the
tools and options in these products from past experience, so they can get started with them right away, rather
than facing a potential loss of productivity. These applications are also available in Web-based versions in Office
2010 Web Apps to help users maximize their productivity when they’re away from their desktops. Office 2010 Web
Apps have the familiar Office Fluent user interface and offer essential editing capabilities, without loss of data or
formatting.
With Office 365, IT can leverage role-based access controls to help you save time and to lower operational costs
15-20% by reducing the burden on your IT staff. A new role-based security model, self-service capabilities, and the
Web-based Exchange Control Panel, let you delegate common or specialized tasks to your users without giving
them full administrative rights or increasing help desk call volume.
By contrast, Google provides very basic functionality with limited capabilities for users and administrators. For
example, Google Apps converts any Office or OpenOffice document into HTML, which permanently alters content,
often removing critical elements such as charts without warning the user.
With Google Apps, IT administrators have either full or no control over accounts. They cannot delegate tasks, and
anyone who has administrator access can decommission an entire email service. Because of these and other
problems, organizations that use Google Apps have to train end users and IT support staff, and reset expectations
because of reduced Google Apps functionality. Organizations must also deal with risks from Google Labs
applications, third-party widgets, and fixes that Google slipstreams into the environment as unsupported
installations. To find out more about the many missing features and file-fidelity problems that users experience in
Google Apps, visit this post:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/whymicrosoft/archive/2010/05/11/google-docs-does-not-make-office-better.aspx
Make an informed decision! Visit www.whymicrosoft.com 6

7. Microsoft Outlook Integration
Microsoft Office Outlook is the most popular e-mail client in organizations of all sizes. With Office 365, users have
access to mail and calendaring via a rich client, the Web, or phone. Organizations that are used to a rich-client
experience, including integrated off-line access for e-mail and calendaring, should understand the support
requirements for Outlook with Google Apps. Google heavily publicizes Gmail’s integration with Outlook. But Gmail
only partially synchronizes data with Outlook, and in some cases, requires users to manage two different inboxes.
Among other features, Gmail is also missing:
 Robust security features. Gmail does not offer enterprise-grade security features such as Digital Rights
Management, message encryption, digital signatures, and policy-based e-mail management, which Microsoft
Exchange with Outlook includes at extra cost.
 Outlook data types. A Gmail account will not store in the cloud data such as Outlook Categories, Tasks,
Notes, Journal Entries, rules, signatures, delivery receipts, importance levels, follow-up flags and reminders,
meeting invitation attachments, and other meeting invitation content such as images, links, and bold text. This
presents a risk of data loss, as the data is stored only on client machines.
 Offline features. Offline features that Outlook supports such as out-of-office responses, recalling sent
messages, recovering deleted items, and personal distribution lists do not synchronize with Gmail.
 Scheduling features. Gmail does not offer suggested meeting times, conference room availability, optional
attendees and other scheduling features that Outlook includes.
 Access to a Global Address List (GAL). Gmail does not offer access to data such as additional contact phone
numbers, company name, organizational hierarchy, employee titles, group addresses, and out-of-domain
contacts that users can find in the GAL in Outlook.
 Other Outlook features. Gmail does not provide document preview and many other features that come with
Microsoft Outlook.
 Alerts. Users typically want to know when new e-mail messages and instant messages arrive. Unlike with
Microsoft Outlook and Exchange, if Gmail isn’t open in browser, the user will not receive these alerts. The
customer must also deploy Google Talk to receive this functionality.
 Presence. Information that shows whether users are free or busy is extremely helpful when users need to
schedule meetings and contact other users. With Gmail, users or IT teams have to deploy and configure two
separate utilities from Google to obtain presence information.
In addition, supporting Outlook synchronization with Google requires installing a separate tool, Google Apps Sync
for Microsoft Outlook®. For IT, this means deploying client-side connectors on every PC as well as setting up a
server to synchronize the company’s LDAP directory with Google Apps for a Global Address Book. Besides Google
Apps Sync for Outlook, to provide Gmail with the same functionality that you get at no additional cost in
Microsoft Exchange Online and Microsoft Outlook, you could require the following extra applications and browser
add-ons and plug-ins:
 Exchange to Google Apps Migrator for bulk migration of email messages from Exchange to Gmail
 DirSync or another application to synchronize the Gmail directory with Active Directory®
 MyOneLogin or a similar identity service to provide single-sign-on to Active Directory
 Postini to provide message archiving
 Google Chrome to use the latest features in HTML version 5.
Unified Messaging, Instant Messaging, and User Presence
Microsoft uses instant messaging functionality in an innovative and integrated way: IM functionality is both a
messaging vehicle and a presence indicator in Microsoft Outlook and other Microsoft applications. The presence
Make an informed decision! Visit www.whymicrosoft.com 7

8. indicator shows who is online and whether they are available or busy at a given time. Microsoft applications track
the presence of users who are part of an organization’s Active Directory infrastructure in all communications and
documents. Without leaving an application, users can click a presence indicator to invite people to chat. Features
like the presence indicator are possible because Microsoft integrates applications from the ground up to improve
user productivity.
Thanks to Microsoft federated services, users can even see presence indicators for any partners and customers
with whom their organization has a federation agreement. This further enhances productivity by letting people
securely communicate with people in organizations associated with their own.
Many IBM Lotus Notes customers have implemented the Lotus Sametime infrastructure on-premises to provide
instant messaging and user presence capabilities. Google offers a basic IM and PC to PC or Web-based calling
system called Google Talk, which is available as a standalone Windows application. Built on the open Extensible
Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) for IM, Google Talk connects with other XMPP-based IM networks so
users can chat beyond the bounds of their organization.
However, Google Talk does not integrate with other Google products, so it cannot be used as a central
management point for user presence. Unlike in Microsoft applications, with Google Talk, there is no automated
set of rules for how to communicate with contacts based on their presence.
Offline Capabilities
Microsoft applications present secure offline capabilities. Outlook users have the same client experience while
disconnected from the Internet. Microsoft Office users can make changes to documents offline and synchronize
just the delta updates when they are online by using Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 2010. This allows users to
take full SharePoint list types, including: Discussion, Announcements, Links, and Custom Lists offline. Even
workflows can be taken offline so that every time a user synchronizes it will correctly trigger any workflows that
are idle and listening to activity. Microsoft Business Connectivity Services (BCS) allow line-of-business application
data to be pulled offline. Combine BCS with the support for InfoPath forms inside of Outlook and SharePoint
Workspace 2010, and users can work with all corresponding business data and applications whether online or
offline.
By contrast, Google Apps’ lack of offline capabilities are a big gap in Google’s offerings. Google Apps users are
much less productive when they cannot connect to the Internet. Google's answer to this problem is Google Gears,
a browser add-in for which Google abandoned support on May 4, 2010 and which the GAFB SLA does not
support. GAFB provides offline caching for mail and calendaring ONLY. All creation and updates to documents,
spreadsheets, or presentations must be done while connected to the Internet. Google Gears must be deployed for
every user, and data is stored locally in an unencrypted state.
Migrating Applications and Data
Document repositories, itemized tracking systems, and forms-based business process applications also run on IBM
Lotus Notes/Domino servers. To transition these applications to the cloud, capabilities such as built-in workflow,
role-based security and business logic must be redeveloped and supported. Google’s strategy document for
transitioning IBM Lotus Notes applications states that if an organization’s ―migration costs don’t justify an
appropriate return on investment, or users and business processes depend on a small set of Notes applications in
a way that complicates migration, then continuing to support a Lotus Notes installation may be the logical path.‖
Make an informed decision! Visit www.whymicrosoft.com 8

9. If you want to transition away from IBM Lotus Notes completely, you must consider the custom applications
running in your environment. Many organizations that have moved their e-mail to Microsoft Exchange Online
have hesitated to move their Lotus Notes applications to Microsoft SharePoint. But the release of Microsoft
SharePoint Server 2010 has changed this dramatically. Microsoft has added a great deal of functionality in
customization and development to help organizations migrate to SharePoint from IBM Lotus Notes. For instance,
organizations can use SharePoint Designer, a free downloadable application, to customize hosted SharePoint sites
without writing any code. Using SharePoint Designer, developers can create custom workflows, extensively
customize pages, edit master pages, work with complex Web parts, add custom action buttons, and more.
Application Platform Comparison
Both Microsoft and Google offer application-development environments as target platforms for IBM Lotus Notes
applications. But only Microsoft lets you deploy applications both on premises and in the cloud. You can deploy
Microsoft SharePoint business applications in the cloud, on premises, or in a hybrid manner—both in the cloud
and on-premises. SharePoint 2010 offers development capabilities that require no coding, and advanced content-
management features such as Managed Metadata to address the business needs of customers.
Another new feature that will be popular with Lotus Notes developers is the ability to specify simple input
validation formulas for data fields, including the messages that should be displayed if the validation tests fail.
By comparison, Google does not provide an on-premises option for deploying business applications. All
applications must be redeveloped in their hosted services environment and supported in the cloud. If you cannot
re-platform your IBM Lotus Notes applications to Google’s hosted services environment due to redevelopment
costs, security concerns, or data-management issues, then you will likely need to retain your IBM Lotus Notes
environment.
Google’s version of an application development platform is a mixture of solutions, including Google Sites, Google
Apps Scripts, Google Spreadsheets, Google Gadgets, and Google App Engine. For custom development, you must
rebuild all IBM Lotus Notes business applications from scratch, using HTML for forms, plus standard Java
technologies, including the JVM, Java servlets, and the Java programming language—or any other language using
a JVM-based interpreter or compiler, such as JavaScript or Ruby.
** For a complete side-by-side comparison of the custom development capabilities, please reference the corresponding comparison
chart for this white paper.
Custom Forms Development
Redeveloping a Lotus Notes application requires redesigning the forms for creating and editing data records.
Microsoft InfoPath 2010 is a popular solution for building data-entry forms for custom business applications.
InfoPath is designed for both advanced business users and developers, depending on the type of forms-based
solution you need. Many Lotus Notes customers see InfoPath as the best choice for redesigning Lotus Notes
forms that contain user-friendly field layouts, integrated tables, non-trivial data validation rules, and interactive
functionality such as hide-when formulas.
SharePoint 2010 also introduces a great way to simplify data updates called InfoPath List Forms. This feature
allows developers and power users to use InfoPath forms as the content editor for SharePoint list items. This
mimics how Lotus Notes applications work, with custom forms in which to enter and display record data stored in
the application. For a more complex forms application, SharePoint provides the capabilities for developers to write
custom controls or entire applications by using HTML or Silverlight.
Make an informed decision! Visit www.whymicrosoft.com 9

10. There are two options for hosting custom forms within the Google Apps environment, but neither is as flexible or
powerful as what you can do with SharePoint or InfoPath. Both options use the basic Google Spreadsheets
capability to generate a form with data fields. The first option feed the form’s results directly into a spreadsheet
repository in Google Docs. A second option uses Google Sites to embed the Google Spreadsheets form inside a
custom location.
Business Process Workflow
Lotus Notes workflows are almost always implemented as code segments attached to various action buttons, form
events, and agents. By contrast, the Microsoft platform encourages the use of declarative workflows expressed as
rules that even non-programmers can understand, enter, and modify.
Declarative workflow capabilities have improved significantly in SharePoint 2010, with a much richer set of out-of-
the-box workflows to use in applications. Workflow templates in SharePoint 2010 include an Approval Process, a
Collect Feedback review process, a Collect Signatures review process, and a Disposition Approval workflow for
managing content lifecycles. Developers and even end users can customize the out-of-the-box workflows if
needed, or design their own from scratch by using the new capabilities in SharePoint Designer. These new
workflows can be created, tested, and deployed without writing any code, and they can address most of the
workflows in Lotus Notes applications. In addition, workflow status and capabilities are surfaced directly inside of
Office or the web so users do not have to leave their working environment to interact with their workflow
processes.
By contrast, any workflow capabilities in Google Apps must be developed in Apps Script or Java and linked to
HTML forms or forms created within Google Spreadsheets. Google does not offer any out-of-the-box workflow
templates or workflow-development environment.
Application Data Migration Tools
Once you have developed or redeveloped the application in the target platform or identified the content
management repository in the new environment, you must still migrate application data to the new location.
Microsoft has many partners that can migrate IBM Lotus Notes application data to SharePoint, either on-premises
or in the cloud. These partners’ migration tools can directly provision SharePoint sites and lists, and transition
content with high fidelity, including the author/editor identities as well as the original creation dates associated
with the data records. In addition, they can move all content formatting intact as well as the metadata tags,
document links, and corresponding file attachments from the original application repositories.
Google, on the other hand, provides no such partner tools for migrating data to a new application built on Google
Apps. Instead, you must write your own data migration scripts by using the import APIs that Google supports.
These import options do not provide the same level of data fidelity and content-mapping capabilities delivered by
Microsoft migration partners for Microsoft Office 365.
Full Lotus Notes/Domino Retirement
Transitioning an entire portfolio of IBM Lotus Notes items to the cloud or an on-premises platform often requires
rebuilding highly customized, mission-critical business-process applications and migrating data to the target
platform. Some of these applications need the advanced data-management features of a relational database,
flexible security models, and customizable user interface capabilities. If you cannot migrate these complex
applications to the cloud, you must continue to pay for the infrastructure and support of IBM Lotus Notes in your
environment.
Make an informed decision! Visit www.whymicrosoft.com 10

11. Google knows that many mainstream business decision-makers want holistic hosted services that can
accommodate custom development of complex business applications. That is why Google is quickly building the
disparate elements of the Google App Engine (GAE), Google Gadgets, and Google Apps Scripts. But how these
solutions will be integrated and how they will scale with the appropriate data management and security levels is
not clear. Google has not yet released a clear roadmap for the future of the Google application platform.
Microsoft, on the other hand, continues to release roadmaps that outline the future capabilities that SharePoint
2010 will bring to hosted-services offerings for content management, simple item tracking, workflow and
collaboration applications.
Microsoft is also creating a comprehensive cloud environment in which you can develop highly scalable custom
applications: Microsoft Windows Azure. This platform consists of a group of powerful cloud technologies that
provide specific services to application developers. Windows Azure provides a Windows-based environment for
running applications and storing data on servers in Microsoft data centers. The components of the Windows
Azure platform are:
 SQL Azure™: Provides data services in the cloud based on Microsoft SQL Server.
 Windows Azure™ platform AppFabric: Provides cloud services for connecting applications running in the
cloud or on premises.
Developers in the Windows Azure platform can build applications that use the Microsoft .NET Framework,
unmanaged code, or other approaches. Developers can write these applications in popular programming
languages such as C#, Visual Basic, C++, and Java, using Visual Studio or another development tool. Developers
can create Web applications, using technologies such as ASP.NET, Windows Communication Foundation (WCF),
and PHP, applications that run as independent background processes, or applications that combine the two. To
find out more about the Windows Azure and SQL Azure platforms, visit this page:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/products/default.aspx
Integration with On-Premises Application Environment
Both Windows Azure applications and on-premises applications can access the Windows Azure storage service,
and both do it in the same way: using a RESTful approach. This service allows storing binary large objects (blobs),
provides queues for communication between components of Windows Azure applications, and even offers a form
of tables with a simple query language. For applications that need traditional relational storage, the Windows
Azure platform provides the SQL Azure Database for all relational database functions. An application that uses the
Windows Azure platform can use any combination of these storage options.
Running applications and storing data in the cloud can have clear benefits. Rather than buying, installing, and
operating your own systems, for example, you rely on a cloud provider to do this for you. Also, you pay only for
the computing and storage that you use, rather than maintaining extra servers only for peak loads. And if your
applications are written correctly, they can scale tremendously to take advantage of the enormous data centers
that Microsoft provides.
Just as IT organizations have had to adapt to the changes brought by PCs, mobile devices, and other new
platforms, they now need to decide how to adapt to cloud platforms. And just as Windows played a huge part in
those earlier shifts in computing, Windows Azure is poised to take an important role in the new world of cloud
computing. If you are responsible for charting your organization’s IT path, it makes good sense to evaluate and
understand the Windows Azure environment.
Make an informed decision! Visit www.whymicrosoft.com 11

12. By comparison, the Google App Engine is limited in its enterprise capabilities. GAE lacks a true relational database
management system to provide robust RDBMS functionality. In addition, Google offers only limited support for
the GAE database APIs. And unlike Microsoft, which offers a Service Level Agreement for Windows Azure, Google
still offers no SLA for GAE, so if GAE is down, you have no recourse for your lost time and money.
Links and Resources
Microsoft Links
 Microsoft Office 365
office365.microsoft.com
 Business Productivity Online Standard Suite
www.microsoft.com/online/default.mspx
 Microsoft Exchange Online
www.microsoft.com/online/exchange-online.mspx
 Microsoft SharePoint Online
www.microsoft.com/online/sharepoint-online.mspx
 Microsoft Office Communications Online
www.microsoft.com/online/office-communications-online.mspx
 Microsoft Office Live Meeting
www.microsoft.com/online/office-live-meeting.mspx
Customer Case Studies
GlaxoSmithKline
The second largest pharmaceutical company in the world, GlaxoSmithKline supplies a quarter of the world's
vaccines and produces some of the leading prescription medicines and consumer healthcare products.
Business Situation
GlaxoSmithKline needed to improve collaboration with partners, to improve effectiveness in growing markets, to
move away from customized solutions, and to lower the cost of operations and investments.
Solution
GlaxoSmithKline chose to replace the Lotus Notes, Domino, and Postini services with the Microsoft Business
Productivity Online Suite – including Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft Office SharePoint Online, Microsoft
Office Communications Online, Microsoft Office Live Meeting and the Microsoft Deskless Worker Suite to deploy
to all of its employees worldwide. Everything would be hosted at Microsoft data centers around the globe.
Benefits
 Reduce Operational Costs
 Drive Innovation
 Improve Collaboration
 Simplify User Experience
“We have chosen Microsoft Online Services because it promises to deliver a simple intuitive Information Workplace
that should not only bring value to the company through simplification, but provide an improved user experience
and ultimately create a more productive GSK. “–Bill Louv, Chief Information Officer, GlaxoSmithKline
Make an informed decision! Visit www.whymicrosoft.com 12

13. Godiva Chocolates
Godiva Chocolatier is a premier purveyor of hand-crafted chocolates, available from its 400-plus global boutique
stores, other retailers, and over the Internet. Godiva is based in New York City and has 1,400 employees.
Business Situation
Godiva needed to upgrade its aging IBM Lotus Notes e-mail system, but felt that the move would be expensive
and consume valuable IT staff time. Also, users were dissatisfied with the Notes interface. Godiva also looked at
LotusLive, a cloud-based e-mail service from IBM, and Google Gmail.
Solution
Godiva licensed the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite, part of Microsoft Online Services,
which provides Microsoft communications and collaboration programs for a monthly per-user fee. They worked
with Binary Tree, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, to migrate their e-mail into the ―cloud,‖ using Microsoft
Online Services. By delivering e-mail over the Internet, Godiva eliminated U.S.$250,000 in annual Notes
maintenance and hosting fees, achieved cost-effective e-mail scalability, and freed its IT staff to focus on
supporting business growth.
Benefits
 U.S.$250,000 annual savings
 Faster response to business needs
 Easier scalability
 Cost-effective availability
“I’ve been able to provide equal or better email service at a much lower cost, which is a big win for Godiva. We’re
looking at a $250,000 annual savings from eliminating Notes.”–Steve Whitelam, Director of Information Technology,
Global Shared Services, Godiva Chocolatier
Microsoft Migration Partners
Microsoft works closely with scores of partners that have experience in migrating Lotus Notes installations to
Microsoft products. Key Microsoft partners have migrated more than 35 million users from Lotus Notes to
Microsoft products in the past decade:
 Binary Tree  Quest Software
www.binarytree.com http://www.quest.com/
 CASAHL Technology  Full Armor
www.casahl.com http://www.fullarmor.com/
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